MORIANI HOME
Every bit of energy in the room is
sucked up and refocused upon Katherine. Andy and Nick, both stunned by
the admission for very different reasons, are completely fixed upon her
steely green gaze.
"Mother ..." Andy's voice is quivering
as he hovers somewhere between not wanting to believe it and wanting to
throttle her.
"I did it," Katherine repeats, satisfaction
seeping in. "Or at least, I thought I did. What brought that horrible woman
back here?"
"She came to visit her brother,"
Andy says curtly. "Mother, what did you do to Danielle? Did you--did you
make her go to San Diego instead of marrying me?"
Katherine purses her lips in thought
and then lifts an eyebrow wistfully. "If only I'd been able to manage that.
No, what I did was a lot simpler, Andrew. And still she bought it, hook,
line, and sinker."
"What did you do?"
Nick shoots Katherine a warning glance
but she ignores it.
"I was still in my coma when she
ran out on you at the altar, remember that," she explains. "But when you
returned from San Diego, I had come out of it and you told me what Danielle
had done. I arranged for her to be offered a spot on that worldwide tour
so that I could be assured she wouldn't return to King's Bay to play more
games with you."
For Andy, reality has suddenly become
very warped. Through all those months that he missed Danielle, he kept
reminding himself that the end of their relationship had come about because
of them, not because of some outside force, and that was a sign that he
had to let it go. To hear now that he was lying to himself -- at least,
to some degree -- is surreal.
"How could you do that?" he hears
himself shout. "Danielle and I might have had a chance to work things out!
If she hadn't left so quickly on that tour, then maybe ..." He doesn't
need to vocalize the possibilities.
"I had to do it, Andrew! I was not
going to let her come back here and make a mess of our lives all over again!
I saw how badly she hurt you when she left you at the altar. You were destroyed.
I was not going to sit around and watch that happen again. You needed
to heal -- we needed to."
"If we were going to heal, it would
have happened independent of Danielle. You ruined my chance at happiness!"
Katherine makes no move. Andy thinks
that she is going to come down the stairs but she doesn't.
"Perhaps I shouldn't have worried
about her," Katherine muses with a heavy note of hostility. "Perhaps she
would have come back here and distracted you and you would have let me
be happy with Nick."
Now Andy's mouth flares open. "I
have been concerned about you, Mother! This was not some crusade I undertook
because I had nothing better to do with my time."
"Tell yourself whatever you like,
Andrew."
"I have done all of this because
I care about you!" The declaration works itself across his mind again.
"Or rather, because I thought you were someone worth caring about. I
thought we would be able to have a second chance at a good relationship.
But you destroyed that by manipulating Danielle--and me!--yet again."
"I don't regret it," Katherine says
firmly. "Not one bit. That woman -- she's the one who did this to you.
She turned you from a loving son, a focused man with ambition, with regard
for what was truly important, into this man I hardly recognize. This man
who has spent a year trying to undermine my happiness and who has shown
no regard for my wishes because he is too bitter about his own bad luck!"
"That is it!" Andy roars without
hesitation. "This is the last straw, Mother, the absolute last straw! I
am not going to play this game with you anymore. You've pushed me too far!"
Katherine sees him hesitate. It is
only for a split-second, but he leaves the briefest window of opportunity
for her to rush down the stairs and attempt to make him take back his words.
She doesn't take it.
The hesitation flies away and Andy
turns. He storms out the front door and pulls it closed roughly behind
him. It slams, the echo crashing through the now-silent house.
END OF EPISODE #220
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